The Louisiana Democrats' weak hand

4/30/12 8:05 AM EDT

As the Times-Picayune notes, Peterson is the first woman and the second African-American to lead the state party.

Peterson and Leach said the party's top priorities this fall are re-electing Obama and holding onto the 2nd Congressional District seat of U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, which now runs from the New Orleans area to Baton Rouge. Landrieu and Richmond are the only Democrats in the state's nine-member Washington delegation, soon to be pared to eight by congressional redistricting.

The state party’s top priorities tell you something about the weak hand Louisiana Democrats are playing in the Bobby Jindal era. Neither outcome is much in doubt: President Obama doesn’t have a prayer of winning the state, while Republicans don’t have a prayer of knocking off Richmond in his heavily Democratic New Orleans-based House seat, the only one in the state the GOP doesn't hold.